What is Thunderdome?

Everybody in the rave scene has seen this logo before – the Thunderdome wizard. But the new generation will never know what Thunderdome was. A big part of our rave culture, explained! What lies behind Thunderdome?

Thunderdome was a hardcore and gabber music festival by ID&T. Besides events they organised many CDs and albums. The first ID&T rave had the name ‘The Final Exam’ and held in the Netherlands (1992). A few month later ID&T organized the second rave called ‘Thunderdome I – Thialf in Heerenveen’. The concept was born and many big raves and CDs should follow, creating a huge part of todays rave culture. Thunderdome has literally reached a cult-like status.

Between 1992 and 2012 ID&Torginized 40 Thunderdomes mainly in Europe: Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Australia and Belgium. A ‘must visit’ for hardcore and gabber fans, since Thunderdome was the biggest hardcore event with the most reach.

ID&T and Arcade Records released the first gabber compilation in 1993 under the same name. According to Arcade Records, Thunderdome Albums were a huge success and were sold over 1.500.000 times by 1995. Different merchandise products are still available worldwide on the official Thunderdome website.

20th Anniversary of Thunderdome

The oldest and most famous party in the rave scene got 20 years old on the 15th of December 2012! In preparation Thunderdome toured through Europe with huge parties. They visited Germany and the Nature One, Belgium and The Qontinent, Italy and DiscotecaFlorida and Switzerland. ‘The Final Exam’ had six stages and was the named after the first Thunderdome – the end of a rave legend was coming and we will remember it as the most influential hardcore concept in the world.